About:
I completed a PhD in the Geography Department at The Ohio State University in August 2017. As a spatial scientist I primarily tackle problems in economic geography by using spatial statistical methods and GIS. Within the realm of economic geography my foci are agglomeration, beer geographies, consumer retail, food access and security, patents, and research and development (R&D). I am invested in developing new spatial statistical models to solve these problems, which includes methods for point pattern analysis, spatial simulation, and spatio-temporal data. In conjunction with these new methods I extensively rely on the use of programming in the context of geographic information systems and science (GISS) to tackle these problems.
For my dissertation I (1) applied spatial point pattern methods to model and represent the spatial volume of consumer goods and services providers, (2) assessed how the diversity in retail outlets available to consumers changed as a result of the Great Recession, and (3) identified areas that were hit hardest by the recession by showing where contractions in the goods and services industry was greatest, while also locating areas that remained relatively resilient. The goal was to show how consumer outcomes were affected by the dynamics in the sector.
During my time at OSU I served as a graduate research affiliate at the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis. In addition, I was a part of the inter-university research team working on the NEXTRANS/US DOT Truck Activity at International Border Crossings project – analyzing the geospatial accuracy of data from on-board data units. I was a member of the Food Innovation Center and my collaboration with the OSU Food Mapping Team was awarded a seed grant from the Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT).